Abu

One of our jackass supervisors dumped Abu in Area 51. Figures. For the time being we’re stuck with him. A managed move like this takes place when a problem employee has to be swept under the carpet because his or her coworkers have been complaining about the individual to the bosses for too many months. Instead of trying to correct an employee’s poor job performance or address the employee’s personality conflicts with coworkers it’s easier for supervisors to simply shuffle deadbeat employees around from area to area. They’re hoping the issue will magically go away by itself. Never works out that way. Ever. Abu is now the new Adjust Two station operator on swing shift. He’s already fucking up after being here with us only a few days. I’m not in the least bit surprised. We’ll end up wasting our time babysitting the jerk.

Dung and I were talking about Abu the other night. Dung knows like the rest of us do that Abu is pretty much worthless around here. Dung refers to him as “Abuuuuuushit.” When I told him Abu had been tossed our way he said, “Abuuuuushit. You see? Yeah! Yeah yeah!” As usual he made his patented gestures in the air with both arms like a famous orchestra conductor as he said “Abuuuuushit.”

I’ve watched Abu screw off for months. In the assembly lines he has a reputation for disappearing from his workbench hours at a time. Nobody can find him when they need him and when he is present and accounted for all he does is talk on the phone or sleep. One night about six months ago I sat in with Abu while he was building instrument chassis. My product group was slow, Abu’s group was slammed so they needed all the help they could get. Abu was supposed to train me on his assembly station but that didn’t happen. Instead he talked my ear off for most of an eight hour shift about his home country, Eritrea. I did learn alot about Eritrea that night, I admit, but we sure as hell didn’t get any boxes finished.

Abu is kind of funny looking. He reminds me of a black Freddy Mercury that wears his hair in a ‘fro. It’s because of his odd jaw line and pinched up mouth. I think Abu is a stoner. That would explain why his eyes are always halfway closed and bloodshot. It might also explain his habit of falling asleep on the job so much, too. In the past couple of evenings I can’t help but watch as Abu puts his feet up on BP’s workbench and kicks back. Each night he grabs a box to test and if we’re extremely lucky Abu might actually finish it before he goes home at the end of the shift. That’s pathetic. One tested unit per eight hour shift. BP knocks out tons of boxes during her eight hours on dayshift. You have to know it’s pretty weak when a blind woman can do more work than you can. And in this situation it’s not a joke.